


Parley

by KnightlyWordsmith



Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Gen, Humor, OC, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 03:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6454636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnightlyWordsmith/pseuds/KnightlyWordsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clara just wants to study for her calculus exam when a stranger with only one eye appears with a not at all tantalizing offer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parley

The university library was busier than Clara could ever remember seeing it. Every table was taken up by students with various levels of panic on their faces. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. There was something about finals time that seemed to remind students that studying was important if you wanted to pass. Funny how that worked.

After much searching she found herself a desk tucked into a dark alcove with one of the two lights above it burned out. Sitting down in the rickety chair, a frown came onto her face. One leg was off balance, so that every time she shifted her weight the chair moved with her. Ignoring this added annoyance she pulled out her calculus textbook, neatly arranged a few sheets of loose leaf and settled in for a long night of working through practice problems.

As she started onto her fourth question of the night a strange hum of static rose in the air, and the dim light above her flickered. She glanced upward, eyeing the light with a hard look as if the force of her glare could will it back into shining properly. Considering how much the damn place was taking out of her wallet, they sure as hell should be able to afford decent lightbulbs. After a moment the light strengthen again, but the static in the air didn’t go away. If anything it grew stronger. Trying to ignore it, Clara ducked her head back over her books, focusing on the mass of numbers and letters that were supposed to be ‘math’.

The sharp sound of someone clearing their throat brought her eyes back up from the pages on the desk. She would have liked to say she didn’t stare, but she stared. A guy about her age was standing to the side of her desk, a mess of green hair falling around his shoulders, but doing little to mask the jagged line of a gruesome scar that cut across his left eye.

That wasn’t the only thing odd about him. There was something in his stance that said he felt out of place. He stood with his shoulders slightly hunched, but in a way that seemed forced. The casual logoed t-shirt he was wearing was a little too snug on his obviously well-muscled form. He held a stack of books awkwardly under his left arm, and the titles all oddly pertained to sea monsters, but even those things were not what set Clara off.

The hum in the air was stronger than it had been before, and she finally recognized it for what it was. Cosmos, but one that someone was obviously making an effort to keep as hidden as possible. There shouldn’t have been anyone aside from herself within a few hundred square kilometers with a trained Cosmos. Not unless there was some kind of crisis that required the assistance of a Saint, and Clara was sure if that were the case her sister would have volunteered and let her know she would be back on this side of the Atlantic.

“You’re a student,” the stranger announced bluntly, finally breaking the silence that was stretching between them. No, ‘Hello’. No, ‘I’ve noticed your Cosmos as well’. No, ‘Sorry I’ve been standing here having a staring contest with you for the last sixty seconds’. Just ‘You’re a student’.

“Well good golly gosh goodness, what gave you that impression?” Clara drawled back at the stranger sarcastically, keeping her voice as low as she could so as not to disturb those who were heavy into their studying. “The fact that I’m in a university library? The stack of books in front on me?” She gestured at the thick calculus textbooks on the desk in front of her. “The faint orange tinge to my cheeks that shows I’ve been living off of nothing but Kraft Dinner for the last three months?”

“Well, it certainly wasn’t your charming personality,” the guy responded, a smile stretching across his face that showed an unsettling amount of teeth.

“Says, the guy who wanders up, and introduces himself with ‘You’re a student,” Clara snapped back. She unconsciously pushed her chair back slightly from the desk, giving herself room to maneuver if it became necessary. Clearly some old habits die hard.

The stranger made no move to attack though. Instead he inclined his head briefly. “Isaak,” he supplied as a belated introduction. “My apologies, perhaps that was poor form.” Clara’s brows furrowed slightly. He’d gone from blunt and rude to smooth politeness in no time flat. If nothing else this Isaak was certainly perplexing. “I was simply surprised to find that you were in fact actually a student. I wasn’t expecting that of someone with a trained Cosmos.”

So he finally acknowledged that giant elephant in the room. He still hadn’t made any move, and the longer he stood there, the less he seemed aggressive. He’d straightened out of the slouch he’d been standing in when he first appeared, appearing more at ease with his shoulders held up in a rigid line. The slouch had seemed more like him trying to take on the persona he expected to see in a downtrodden university undergrad. He’d really done a poor job at that whole appearance.

“And I’m Clara,” she replied so they could both be well and truly introduced finally. “By what you say I assume you’re admitting that you’re not a student yourself there Davy Jones,” she nodded at the stack of sea monster books that had been part of his poorly put together disguise.

Another toothy grin, and a faint chuckle. She’d actually amused him this time. “I doubt anyone not paying too much attention would have noticed,” he said in his own defence. He relaxed against the side of the bookshelf that stood opposite the desk Clara was sitting at. “I guess there’s no more time for pretenses then.”

“You didn’t really start with any,” Clara deadpanned in response.

“Fine,” Isaak shrugged. “I’m here on behalf of my superiors,” he explained very matter-of-factly, cutting to the meat of things. “They have a habit of picking out those with trained Cosmos who for whatever reason aren’t members of Athena’s Sanctuary.”

Clara’s brows lowered. “Now that doesn’t sound suspicious at all.” Unease bit at the back of her thoughts. She didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. She’d gotten out of the Saint business without ever really entering it, and she’d prefer to keep things that way if she could.

“Suspicious, maybe,” Isaak agreed. “But not bad. We just like people to know there are other options if you survive Saint training without coming out of it with a Cloth,” Isaak replied. “The strength of your Cosmos brought you to our attention and we thought you might not like to waste your obvious potential.”

Clara snorted at the light flattery. She spread her arms out in front of her to once again take in the schoolwork she had scattered across the desk. “I’ve got my other option right here, thank you very much.”

Isaak’s one good eye trailed over the work spread across her desk. His upper lip curled slightly, the disdain on his face obvious. Turning back to her he said, “You think you’ll be able to settle back into a normal person’s life so easily.”

Clara shrugged. “I’ve been doing a decent job of it until you came in here, and intend on continuing that as soon as you leave.”

“You seem pretty confident in that.”

“Look, Seaweed-Head,” Clara’s voice hardened, tired of his insistence. She folded her arms in front of her and leaned back in her chair as she glared up at him “Whatever the hell you and your ‘superiors’ are selling, I ain’t fucking buying.”

Isaak shook his head. When his hair stilled on his shoulders once again there was sympathy in his face. “It doesn’t work that way. One way or another the destinies written out in the stars will drag you back into everything.” Another emotion ghosted over his one good eye briefly. Clara wouldn’t pretend that she knew anything about him, but if she had to guess she would have said it was regret that passed fleetingly across his face. “But if there’s nothing I can do to convince you now, I shall leave,” Isaak finished solemnly.

Clara ran a hand over her face before replying in a more sedate tone than she last spoke in, “Right now my only date with destiny is a fatal meeting with a calculus exam tomorrow morning.”

“Then I wish you luck, and apologize for my intrusion.” Isaak inclined his head once more respectfully. He pushed off from the bookshelf, tucked the books he was still holding more securely under his arm and started back down the line of shelves to the exit.

Before he got too far, Clara stuck her head out of the alcove the desk was in and called after him, “Hey! Davy Jones!” She pointedly ignored the irritating shushing sound that came from someone sitting around the corner.

Isaak paused in his step. Turning his head, he looked at her curiously and waited for her to continue.

“If you ever decide that you feel like getting away from the stars and whatever destiny they have for you, this place has got a course all about monsters in literature,” she shot him a wry grin. “I’m sure they talk about the big nasties under the ocean!”

“Wouldn’t need to take it,” he replied, one more of his feral grins coming onto his face. He lifted the stack of books he held in a gesture of farewell, “I already know all of those stories.”

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative ending is that Clara accepts Isaak’s offer and she and Baian go on to terrorize the rest of the Marinas with their excessive Canadian-ness XD


End file.
